{"id":12703,"date":"2021-01-25T16:55:27","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=154359"},"modified":"2021-01-25T16:55:27","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:55:27","slug":"abolish-billionaires-oxfam-report-shows-combined-pandemic-wealth-of-richest-10-people-could-pay-to-vaccinate-entire-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/25\/abolish-billionaires-oxfam-report-shows-combined-pandemic-wealth-of-richest-10-people-could-pay-to-vaccinate-entire-world\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Abolish Billionaires’: Oxfam Report Shows Combined Pandemic Wealth of Richest 10 People Could Pay to Vaccinate Entire World"},"content":{"rendered":"
“Abolish billionaires.”<\/span><\/p>\n That was the simple yet far-reaching message projected Saturday night onto the empty conference center in Davos, Switzerland where the World Economic Forum (WEF) usually meets during the annual summit of the world’s financial and governing elite.<\/span><\/p>\n “We are facing the biggest single rise in inequality since the Great Depression while the 1% make massive profits and increase their wealth. We want a People’s Recovery Plan\u2014a set of radically different responses from governments that work for people and the planet.” \u2014Jenny Ricks, Fight Inequality Alliance<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>“Davos is a symbol of a failed era,” <\/span>said Jenny Ricks, global convenor for the Fight Inequality Alliance, which\u2014along with the local Swiss group Campax\u2014organized the isolated protest in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n While the traditional, lavish summit in Davos is being conducted largely online this year due to Covid-19 health restrictions, critics said the gathering of global elites is not where the world should look for just solutions.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The weekend action, said Ricks, “shows us where real change will come from\u2014people on the frontlines of inequality, not the 1% who benefit from the current system. It is time to abolish billionaires.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n “The pandemic has laid bare and supercharged the systemic inequalities we are fighting more blatantly than ever,” she added. “We are facing the biggest single rise in inequality since the Great Depression while the 1% make massive profits and increase their wealth. We want a People’s Recovery Plan\u2014a set of radically different responses from governments that work for people and the planet.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The projection featured young activists from Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and the United Kingdom who lifted up the call for a “People’s Recovery Plan”\u2014a set of demands, the organizers explained, designed “to combat the spiraling inequality experienced during the pandemic and achieve the systemic change that people on the frontlines of inequality are demanding.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The weekend demonstration was part of the kickoff for the global <\/span>#FightInequality<\/a> campaign that will run through<\/span> the end of January with coordinated actions in approximately 30 countries calling for a just and more equitable public health response and an economic program that gets to the root of pervasive injustice. Specifically, the groups behind the campaign and the “People’s Recovery Plan” are calling for: “The pandemic has shown us that we do indeed need a new start,” said <\/span>Armelle Ako, a campaigner at Campax. “<\/span><\/span>If it was not clear before, it is now. But it is important that the new start does not follow old patterns. Environmental and social justice must be a foundation for our society. We need to get this message across clearly.”<\/span><\/p>\n The action over the weekend in Davos represents the growing international anger directed at the long-existing and grotesque economic inequality that has only been made more starkly evident by the Covid-19 pandemic\u2014a dynamic captured in excruciating detail in a new report issued Monday by Oxfam International.<\/span><\/p>\n Titled “The Inequality Virus<\/a>,” the new report reveals that <\/span>while over two million people have thus far died from the virus\u2014and hundreds of millions of people are being forced into poverty\u2014the world’s very richest people and most powerful corporations are enjoying record profits and increased wealth. While the fortunes of the billionaires of the world have skyrocketed, returning to or even exceeding their pre-pandemic highs in just nine months, the study warns that economic recovery for the world’s poorest could take over a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n “We stand to witness the greatest rise in inequality since records began,” said <\/span>Gabriela Bucher<\/span><\/span>, executive director of Oxfam International, in a statement. “<\/span>The deep divide between the rich and poor is proving as deadly as the virus.” <\/span><\/p>\n “Rigged economies are funneling wealth to a rich elite who are riding out the pandemic in luxury,” she added, “while those on the frontline of the pandemic\u2014shop assistants, healthcare workers, and market vendors\u2014are struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table.” <\/span><\/p>\n “The world’s ten richest men,” Oxfam noted, “have seen their combined wealth increase by half a trillion dollars since the pandemic began\u2014more than enough to pay for a COVID-19 vaccine for everyone and to ensure no one is pushed into poverty by the pandemic.” <\/span><\/p>\n We risk seeing the biggest rise in inequality *since records began*<\/p>\n The world’s 10 richest billionaires -all men- are over *half a trillion* dollars richer since March<\/p>\n This ain’t a drill. New @Oxfam<\/a> report out now as Davos kicks off<\/p>\n Bloomberg. THREAD https:\/\/t.co\/E4YMtfug8C<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Nabil Ahmed (@NabsIMA) January 25, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n According to Oxfam:<\/span><\/p>\n Billionaires fortunes rebounded as stock markets recovered despite continued recession in the real economy. Their total wealth hit $11.95 trillion in December 2020, equivalent to G20 governments’ total Covid-19 recovery spending. The road to recovery will be much longer for people who were already struggling pre-Covid-19. When the virus struck over half of workers in poor countries were living in poverty, and three-quarters of workers globally had no access to social protections like sick pay or unemployment benefits. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n “Extreme inequality is not inevitable, but a policy choice,” added Bucher. “Governments around the world must seize this opportunity to build more equal, more inclusive economies that end poverty and protect the planet.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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